UPM posts draft bill to gut conservation act

(CNS): In a shocking, but not surprising move the minority UPM administration posted a draft amendment bill minutes before noon on New Years Eve that would, if passed, make dramatic changes to one of the country’s most important pieces of legislation when it comes to the future of the Cayman Islands and the type of home the next generation will inherit. The lame duck government had insisted it would bring this legislation to parliament before it is prorogued in February despite no longer having a mandate to make such far reaching changes.

Given that most of the Cayman population was enjoying time with family and friends and preparing for the New Year festivities the bill is likely to slip under the radar until at least next week. In order to meet the 28 day public consultation period the bill needed to be published by 2 January given the premier has set 30 January as the next date for the parliament to meet.

The bill makes some very significant changes which CNS will be reviewing over the coming days and posting more detailed analysis next week. But they include changes that will give Cabinet the power over the environmental protection fund and allow government to dodge environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) on any public project from roads to cruise piers and airports. It removes the National Conservation Council’s ability to delegate issues to the DoE director without asking Cabinet, which currently doesn’t have a single politician in its membership that has any knowledge of environmental science.

The bill also proposes in a roundabout way removing the power of technical experts to properly advise what is proposed to be a more political, rather than a technical council, completely undermining the original purpose of actually having a board that brought together the political appointees with the experts paving the way for uniformed and potentially very damaging, decision making.

It is quite clear that the premier mislead the people of Cayman when answering questions from CNS about the proposed changes last summer when she said that the government would not remove the technical expertise from the council nor would it weaken the act in anyway.

The law’s passage is however, far from guaranteed and at least five of the opposition members will not be supporting the legislation. While the PPM have said they will be waiting to see the bill first in general they are unlikely to support what is considered any contentious legislation before the election given the lack of mandate the current administration has.

The NCC chairman has already pleaded with government not to change the conservation act and make it any less effective as it is already far less powerful than is currently needed to curtail the most egregious type of development that Caymanians fear is already stripping away the islands natural beauty. Given the impact that climate change is already having on the islands, future generations will be facing immense issues unless we begin taking much more effective action to completely stop the loss of wetlands and curtail costal development.

With the public consultation period now open local activists are urging voters to directly lobby their MPs immediately either by phone messaging service, on social media platforms or even in letter to stop this legislation’s passage. The local environment lobby believes that the debate about the conservation law and the need to make it more not less effective should be a central part of the election campaign giving the people the chance to tell their potential representatives what they want rather than allowing the powerful development lobby to get their way before Cayman goes to the polls.

See the proposed amendments to the legislation here and the current law for comparison here.

Check back with CNS for much more about the changes to the law and its chances of passing in the coming days and weeks.